Durfee Foundation

The Durfee Foundation operates one of Los Angeles County's most distinctive philanthropy models: it does not fund open requests for general operating support or project grants. Instead, it channels all grantmaking through four named programs — the Springboard Fund, Stanton Fellowship, Sabbatical Award, and Lark Award — each targeting a specific leadership moment in a nonprofit's arc. Every Durfee grant is an investment in a particular person or team at a defined developmental inflection point, not a response to a funding gap.

This philosophy traces to founders Dorothy Durfee Avery and R. Stanton Avery (inventor of the self-adhesive label), who prized individual initiative, entrepreneurial risk-taking, and fiscal discipline. The foundation's tagline — "Reimagine What's Possible, One Extraordinary Person at a Time" — is an operating principle, not marketing language. Applicants who frame their work as systems-level or institutional rather than people-led will find the message lands poorly.

The January 2025 appointment of CEO Maria Cabildo — a lifelong East LA resident, former Durfee Sabbatical and Stanton recipient, and co-founder of East LA Community Corporation — deepens the foundation's community-embedded orientation. Her selection after reviewing 350+ candidates signals the board is intensifying existing values rather than pivoting strategy. Her background spanning the LA County Board of Supervisors, California Community Foundation, and Catalyst California — and her direct experience mentoring Springboard Fund grantees — makes her uniquely positioned to recognize authentic community leadership. Applicants who lead from lived experience and genuine LA rootedness will find this message resonates.

Relationship progression at Durfee is slow and deliberate. Staff actively encourage — and in some cases require — pre-application conversations. The board meets only three times per year and the full review cycle runs up to four months, including a site visit. Contact Stella Chung (stella@durfee.org, 310-899-5120) or admin@durfee.org early to discuss fit before writing a word.

Durfee's grantee base skews heavily toward BIPOC-led organizations in LA County. Top multi-cycle grantees include Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance ($360,000 over 3 grants), Khmer Girls in Action, Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California ($195,000), California Latinas for Reproductive Justice ($110,000), California Black Women's Health Project, and Thai Community Development Center — reflecting sustained commitment to communities of color facing systemic inequity. First-time applicants with missions centered on these communities and leadership emerging from within them will find the clearest alignment.

Durfee's grantmaking is structured by program rather than negotiated case-by-case, making award size predictable once you identify your track. The Springboard Fund provides up to $70,000 unrestricted over two years for emerging LA-based organizations. The Sabbatical Award provides $75,000 total per awardee — $60,000 for the leader's minimum three-month leave plus $15,000 for organizational staff development (currently closed, reopening Spring 2027). The Stanton Fellowship awards $110,000 per fellow over two years. The Lark Award provides $30,000 per organization for staff collective care, with full discretion on spending.

IRS-reported financials show total giving of $3,537,775 in FY2023, up from $3,259,466 in FY2022 after a notable peak of $4,671,198 in FY2021. That 2021 spike reflected exceptional investment income ($5.24M net) and elevated grants paid ($3.11M) during COVID-era nonprofit support. In FY2022 and FY2023, grants paid narrowed to $1.615M and $1.347M respectively — the gap between grants paid and total giving reflects fellowship stipends and program expenses classified outside traditional grant categories. Foundation assets have grown steadily from $26.3M in FY2012 to $51.2M in FY2022, $56.1M in FY2023, and $59.95M in FY2024, driven primarily by investment returns including $6.79M net investment income in FY2019 and $7.03M in FY2020.

Across 197 historical grants tracked in the database, the average grant was $38,197 and the median was $25,000 (range: $2,500–$255,000). The top grantees by cumulative value are Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs at $515,000 across 6 grants (Springboard, Stanton, and Trust-Based Philanthropy Project), Lost Angels Children's Project at $425,000 across 4 grants, LA Alliance for a New Economy at $390,000 across 4 grants, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance at $360,000 across 3 grants, and La Mas at $355,000 across 3 grants. These relationships demonstrate how multi-program eligibility compounds over time — an organization can receive a Springboard grant, then a leader earns a Stanton Fellowship, and later the executive director qualifies for a Sabbatical.

Geography is essentially non-negotiable: 189 of 197 historical grants (96%) went to California-based organizations, virtually all in LA County. The handful of out-of-state grants (DC, MA, MD, NY) trace to Stanton Fellows' national organizational affiliations or partners like Earthwatch Institute ($248,530). The payout rate holds near 6% of assets annually — modestly above the 5% private foundation minimum — indicating a stable, non-accelerating grantmaking pace.

Durfee's asset-matched peers in the database — all holding approximately $60 million in assets in the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category — share only their balance sheets with the foundation. Their programmatic models, geographic focuses, and applicant accessibility differ sharply.

Among its asset-matched peers, Durfee is the only foundation with active open programs and a public application pathway. The other four appear to operate as invitation-only or pre-selected-grantee family foundations with no public-facing process and no listed websites. Crawford Family Foundation is the only California peer, but offers no application pathway. For LA-based organizations, Durfee's more meaningful functional comparisons are larger region-focused funders: the California Community Foundation (broadly LA-focused, $3.5B+ assets), Liberty Hill Foundation (social justice, LA-rooted, ~$50M assets), and the James Irvine Foundation (statewide CA, ~$2B assets). These funders compete for overlapping grantees and share Durfee's orientation toward BIPOC-led, community-embedded organizations — but operate at materially larger scale. Durfee remains unique in its structured leadership-development program model and its deep, multi-decade relationship with the East and South LA nonprofit ecosystem.

The most consequential recent development at Durfee is the January 1, 2025 appointment of Maria Cabildo as CEO, following a search drawing 350+ applicants and the departure of longtime Executive Director Claire Peeps (whose compensation reached $430,846 in the final reported year). Cabildo is a lifelong East Los Angeles resident, co-founder of East LA Community Corporation, and the first Durfee CEO to have herself been a foundation grantee — she received both a Sabbatical and a Stanton Fellowship and mentored Springboard Fund organizations. Board Chair Theodore Avery called her "brilliant, empathic, a profound communicator" with deep alignment to the foundation's values. No strategic reorientation has been announced.

In December 2025, the foundation announced its fourth annual Lark Award cohort — the largest to date at 11 organizations, each receiving $30,000 for staff collective care. Recipients included artworxLA, Brothers Sons Selves Coalition, CADRE, Eastside LEADS, Long Beach Forward, Mass Liberation, New Directions Drug and Alcohol Services, Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, P.S. Science, Street Poets, and The Plus Me Project.

In August 2025, six executive directors were named 2025-2026 Sabbatical Fellows ($75,000 each): Rudy Espinoza (Inclusive Action), Leslie Ito (Armory Center for the Arts), Marissa Nuncio (Garment Worker Center), Tara Barauskas (Community Corporation of Santa Monica), Chancela Al-Mansour (Housing Rights Center), and Cristian Ahumada (Holos Communities). Six leaders were also named 2025-2026 Stanton Fellows ($110,000 each over two years): Chrissie Castro (California Native Vote Project), Dr. Charity Chandler-Cole (CASA of LA), Lian Cheun (Khmer Girls in Action), Chris Contreras (Brilliant Corners), Susan Goldberg (Nefesh), and Joseph Tomás McKellar (PICO California). The Sabbatical program is currently closed and will not reopen until Spring 2027, making this a meaningful gap for organizations planning around that program.

Match your organization to exactly one program before writing anything. Durfee's four programs are mutually exclusive and each has a precise eligibility profile. The Springboard Fund (up to $70,000 over 2 years) is for new LA-based social ventures past the idea stage but not yet self-sustaining — reviewers assess whether a new free-standing organization is truly needed, whether the business model has revenue paths beyond Durfee, and whether the timing creates meaningful leverage. The Stanton Fellowship ($110,000 over 2 years) is for established, highly-networked LA leaders ready to do independent research on city-scale challenges — Program Director Stella Chung says they seek leaders who are "highly networked, deeply knowledgeable, and naturally inquisitive." The Sabbatical Award ($75,000 total) requires executive directors with 10+ years of sector experience and 4+ years in their current role — and is closed until Spring 2027. The Lark Award ($30,000) targets small LA nonprofits led by and serving BIPOC communities for staff wellness investment.

Contact staff before you draft anything. The foundation explicitly states that a pre-application call or email is "strongly encouraged." Email admin@durfee.org or Stella Chung at stella@durfee.org (310-899-5120). Staff use these conversations to flag mismatches before you spend time on a full application. Organizations that skip this step face higher first-round screen-out rates.

Lead with the leader, not the program. Durfee invests in extraordinary people rooted in their communities. Applications should foreground the leader's biography, their organic connection to the community served, and why this person — at this moment — represents an exceptional opportunity. Generic program logic models and metric-heavy impact frameworks are not the Durfee idiom.

Plan for a four-month process. Applications are accepted twice yearly (Springboard). Initial screening takes up to six weeks. If you advance, expect a staff call, then a site visit, then a board decision. The board meets three times per year. Build this into your organizational calendar and funding pipeline.

Understand the reapplication rules. A declined application may be resubmitted once — but only after a required phone call with staff. After two declines, no further applications are accepted from that organization. Treat each submission as relationship capital, not a low-cost lottery ticket.